Repository: The UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management, Archives and Special Collections

University of California, San Francisco

530 Parnassus Avenue

San Francisco, CA 94143-0840

Phone: (415) 476-8112

Fax: (415) 476-4653

Email: http://www.library.ucsf.edu/collres/archives/contactform.html

URL: http://www.library.ucsf.edu/collres/archives/

Abstract: This collection contains records from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), originally the Kaposi's Sarcoma Research and
Education Foundation (KSREF), from its founding in 1982 through 1995.

Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English

Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog:
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/ .

Information for Researchers

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to the UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manager of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of the UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management as the owner of the physical items
and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) Records, MSS 94-60, The UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge
Management, Archives and Special Collections, University of California, San Francisco.

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

AIDS (Disease)--Social Aspects--United States

San Francisco AIDS Foundation

AIDS (Disease)--California--San Francisco

AIDS (Disease)--Government policy--United States

AIDS (Disease) in women--United States

AIDS (Disease)--Patients--Services for

AIDS (Disease)--Political aspects

AIDS (Disease)--Prevention

AIDS activists--United States

Community foundations

Minorities--Health and hygiene--United States

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation Records were donated to UCSF in 1995 as a part of the AIDS History Project.

System of Arrangement

Portions of this collection are arranged to the folder level, while others are arranged to the container level.

Processing Information

Processed by Bill Walker, Julia Bazar and Josue Hurtado

Institutional History

The mission of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) is to hasten the end of the AIDS epidemic and its impact on society.
It has served as a major resource center for educating the public in order to prevent the transmission of HIV, helping all
individuals make informed choices about AIDS-related concerns, and protecting the human rights of those affected by HIV.
It has provided necessary client services for those in San Francisco affected by HIV, and assisted other organizations in
achieving related goals.

The SFAF was organized in April of 1982 as the Kaposi's Sarcoma Research and Education Foundation (KSREF) by a group of community
leaders and physicians. Initially it was a volunteer-operated, single telephone, information and referral hotline stationed
in a tiny back room at 520 Castro. By the fall of 1982 it had moved into a small suite at 512 Castro and was becoming nationally
recognized for its up-to-date information about AIDS. It obtained its first contracts for educational services with the San
Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and the state of California in late 1982 and early 1983.

As its reputation grew, an attempt was made to expand into a national organization and the KSREF was reorganized as the AIDS/KS
Foundation, Inc (AKF), with Phil Conway as National Director. Other chapters formed in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Rick Crane, the first AKF Director (initially a volunteer position), continued as Director of the San Francisco chapter. When
the national organization faltered, the three chapters split off. The San Francisco chapter, which had moved to 51 10th street
in October of 1983, reorganized as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) early in 1984. Crane left that year and Jim Ferrels
was hired. Ferrels left in 1985 and Tim Wolfred replaced him as Executive Director, following another move, to 333 Valencia.

Wolfred managed SFAF over the next five years as the agency and its programs grew rapidly. In 1987 the Valencia office was
overflowing, and administrative offices were moved to 25 Van Ness. A funding crisis in 1989 instigated an extensive and demoralizing
cutback in staff and programs. After guiding SFAF through this troubled period, Wolfred stepped down. Pat Christen, who began
as an assistant in the education department and later moved up to Director of Public Policy, was chosen as Executive Director
to replace Wolfred. In 1990 the rest of the SFAF offices were moved from Valencia to 25 Van Ness Street where the agency continued
to occupy several suites. In 1993 executive offices, along with fiscal, personnel, policy, development, and campaigns, moved
into additional space on Market Street, and then relocated in 1995 to 10 UN Plaza. By late 1995 the entire agency had moved
to that address.

Client services have included health counseling, support groups, housing, client advocacy and referrals. Special focus services
exist or have existed for women, people of color, and non-English speaking people. The first head of Client Services was Steve
Pratt, who started in 1983 and left the following year. He was succeeded by Tristano Palermino for the years 1984-1986, followed
by Hank Tavera from 1986 through 1989. Tavera was co-chair of the Third World AIDS Advisory Task Force during much of this
same period. In 1990 Michael Lee replaced Tavera as Client Services Director. Catherine Maier was coordinator of Women's Services
during the later 1980s and early 1990s.

The AIDS Food Bank, organized in 1983 as a separate project, was administered by Cary Norsworthy. In 1984 Norsworthy also
organized a Thanksgiving Dinner for PWAs at the Valencia Rose, a gay-owned cabaret. This became an annual event, with SFAF
producing it under Norsworthy's guidance for several years. The Food Bank (Client Services) continued to serve a needy population
for several years. In the restructuring of 1989, SFAF administration decided to eliminate the Food Bank as an SFAF unit. In
1990 it began to operate as an interim joint venture of the AIDS Foundation and Project Open Hand. Since July of 1991 it has
been administered by Project Open Hand, which retains records from 1983 on.

The Education department was initially headed by Mitch Bart, who moved into another position and was replaced by Lyn Paleo.
Paleo headed the department for the next several years, with Chuck Frutchey as a long-time staff member. Early on, Paleo ran
the Northern California Program (often referred to as NorCal), traveling throughout the region to give workshops and encourage
the development of AIDS services at the local level. As more agencies opened, the need for the Northern California outreach
diminished, and this project ended in 1987. Paleo left SFAF about 1988, and Frutchey was named Director of Education, a position
he retained until his retirement in 1994. Among all his other duties, Frutchey was the unofficial historian of the Foundation.
He repeatedly rescued and protected records from throughout SFAF, and it is because of Frutchey that many of the records in
this collection survived.

Three main strategies have been used to promote education by SFAF. The AIDS Hotline was a de facto operation from the day
the telephone was connected in the Castro office in 1983. Over time its services have been used by hundreds of thousands of
callers, a remarkable feat for a completely volunteer-staffed service. Various proposals have been made over time to organize
non-English language hotline services. Of these, only a Filipino Hotline was ever developed.

Another strategy employed by the Education Department was community outreach through forums, workshops, and other events.
The final strategy employed individual educational campaigns which either highlighted a particular message, or targeted a
specific group, or both. One of the tactics for developing campaigns, especially those targeting specific groups, was the
use of focus groups composed of members of the targeted groups. The focus groups serve as temporary advisory bodies which
review proposed campaign images and text. Products have included posters, pamphlets, videotapes, a coloring book, and other
materials. Though these materials were originally distributed and/or sold directly by SFAF, in the early 1990s a switch was
made, giving exclusive distribution rights to a group called Impact AIDS. The Education Department has also sponsored two
newsletters, BETA (a technical journal focusing on AIDS treatments), and
Positive News (a general educational newsletter).

The Media Services office has operated since the early days as well. A Public Policy office was added during the mid-1980s.
Media Services eventually was subsumed under Public Policy. This office is the advocacy arm of SFAF, which performs research
and development for the local, state, and federal government and private sectors, lobbies legislative bodies, holds occasional
forums, issues press releases, and responds to media requests.

Scope and Content of Collection

This collection contains materials representing the work and history of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) from its
founding in 1982, as the Karposi Sarcoma Research and Education Foundation, through 1995. Materials in the collection document
most of the Foundation's major departments and activities, and include board of directors' minutes, budgets, contracts, focus
groups, events, correspondence, grant proposals, reports, flyers, clippings, and photographs. This collection also includes
a small amount of ephemera, including a Rubber Men cape.

Series 1 consists of administrative records, including a complete set of the SFAF Board of Directors' minutes (May of 1983
- December of 1994). No earlier minutes are known to exist. This series also includes records of the executive directors,
including general administrative files (phone logs, resumes of the initial staff, office plans, staff meeting minutes, management
meeting minutes and minutes of the Scientific Advisory Committee) and an integrated set of subject files from 1987-1992.

Series 2 consists of materials from the Personnel, Volunteer Services, Media Services, Development, Public Policy, Planning,
Financial Services, and Contracts departments or offices. Included within this series are press releases from 1983-1992,
records of several staff-initiated support groups, staff-related social events, notices of deaths and memorial services, and
staff-created flyers.

Although this collection does not hold any client files, the administration of Client Services is well documented, particularly
during the Palermino and Tavera administrations. Within Tavera's records, and also among Pat Christen's subject files, there
are a number of incident reports pertaining to the behavior of individual clients; these have been purged of names, addresses,
and other identifying notations while preserving the nature and response to the particular incidents. Since very few of Michael
Lee's files survived his 1994 departure, almost nothing from Client Services in the 1990s is documented. Project Open Hand,
which took over the Food Bank in 1991, retains records from 1983 on.

The Education department is the best documented arm of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. This is undoubtedly due to Chuck
Frutchey's vigilance. The administrative records of the Education Department include a notable amount of correspondence, memos,
and meeting minutes of this department. Another very important component involves bi-weekly and monthly listings of AIDS-related
events, spanning most of the years from 1983 though 1988. Other subseries include Campaign Administration, Campaign Focus
Groups, Individual Campaigns, Educational Events, and records of the AIDS Hotline.

The four final series include Photographs, Newsletters, Monographs, and a very small Ephemera series. Photographs have been
identified on the back when possible. A number of slides, mostly related to the Rubber Men campaign, are also included. The
ephemera series also consists of Rubber Men materials (a mask and cape).

Newsletters are arranged by department or function. Titles include
Onward,
Macropages,
Volunteers/Voluntarios/ Boluntaryo Mga,
Hot Lines,
HOTline FLASHES,
HotLine Notes,
Positive News,
Behind the Scenes and,
HIV Policy Watch. The Monographs series, is composed of reports, guides, surveys, lists, and papers produced by SFAF departments and staff.
The Ephemera series contains two items related to the Rubber Men campaign. All other ephemera items have been moved to the
AIDS History Project Ephemera Collection (MSS 2000-31).

This collection has been processed in several stages. Therefore, all series and subseries are not processed at exactly the
same level. For the sections that were not processed to the full folder level, the number of folders are listed for general
categories/subseries but exact order of the folders have not been confirmed. The Collection is divided into 8 Series with
a number of subseries. They are: